Shape and pose recovery from planar pushing

Abstract

Abstract-Tactile exploration refers to the use of physical interaction to infer object properties. In this work, we study the feasibility of recovering the shape and pose of a movable object from observing a series of contacts. In particular, we approach the problem of estimating the shape and trajectory of a planar object lying on a frictional surface, and being pushed by a frictional probe. The probe, when in contact with the object, makes observations of the location of contact and the contact normal.Our approach draws inspiration from the SLAM problem, where noisy observations of the location of landmarks are used to reconstruct and locate a static environment. In tactile exploration, analogously, we can think of the object as a rigid but moving environment, and of the pusher as a sensor that reports contact points on the boundary of the object.A key challenge to tactile exploration is that, unlike visual feedback, sensing by touch is intrusive in nature. The object moves by the action of sensing. In the 2D version of the problem that we study in this paper, the well understood mechanics of planar frictional pushing provides a motion model that plays the role of odometry. The conjecture we investigate in this paper is whether the models of frictional pushing are sufficiently descriptive to simultaneously estimate the shape and pose of an object from the cumulative effect of a sequence of pushes.

Tactile Mapping and Localization from High-Resolution Tactile Imprints

“…Our work is also related to the SLAM estimation problem [31,32,33]. The application of SLAM to manipulation of 3D objects however has been challenging because of lack of clean information for data association.…”

Joint Inference of Kinematic and Force Trajectories with Visuo-Tactile Sensing

“…The applied and frictional moments are defined as τ = x CM × f and τ µ = x CM × f µ respectively. We can estimate the frictional loads on the object by considering the contribution of each point on the support area A of the object [10]. The friction force f µ and corresponding moment τ µ is found by integrating Coulomb's law across the contact region of the object with the surface…”

“…This framework has also been explored for estimation during manipulation [10]- [12]. In particular, Yu et al [11] formulate a factor graph of planar pushing interaction (for non-prehensile and underactuated object manipulation) using a simplified dynamics model, with both visual object-pose and force-torque measurements and show improved pose recovery over trajectory histories compared to single-step filtering techniques.…”

Realtime State Estimation with Tactile and Visual Sensing. Application to Planar Manipulation

“…• pushing at quasi-static speed; • using ellipsoid limit surface approximation; • assuming uniform friction between object and the surface and between object and pusher; • assuming uniform pressure distribution between the object and the surface and between object and pusher. Similar to previous work [5], we can impose the motion model by using the following cost function:…”